 |
|
Onward Novell partners NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Onward Novell Software (I), a joint venture between Novell Inc and onward technologies, has tied up with IT training firm IIHT to .....more IFFCO to acquire 13 pc stake in collateral management venture NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Public sector fertiliser major Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd will acquire a 13 per .....more Oracle adds India specific HR features in HRMS NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Oracle is incorporating India-specific HR features in its Human Resources Management .....more Jet
Airways voted as NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Leading private carrier Jet Airways has been voted as the best domestic airline by readers of Travel Trade ......more |
|
L T to set up fabrication facility in the Gulf region DUBAI, Oct 13: Indian engineering giant Larsen and Toubro plans to establish a mega modular fabrication facility in the Gulf region to deepen its .......more Reliance infocomm raises $300 mn syndicated loan NEW DELHI, Oct 13: In one of the largest deals by an Indian telecom company, Reliance infocomm has raised 300 million dollar from overseas ......more Five new varieties of seeds, Gram, Sunflower developed INDORE, Oct 13: Five new varities of seeds, Gram, Sunflower, Urad and Jowar were developed by the college of agriculture,.....more Indirect tax collection grows by 25 pc at Rs 15,133 cr in Sept NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Centre’s indirect tax mop-up rose by over 25 per cent to Rs 15,132.65 crore in September due to double digit growth in collection ..........more |
Onward Novell partners with IIHT for IT training NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Onward Novell Software (I), a joint venture between Novell Inc and onward technologies, has tied up with IT training firm IIHT to offer its training courses at 50 centres across India. As per the agreement, IIHT would offer all Novell-authorised courses including Certified Novell Engineer (CNE), Certified Novell Administrator (CNA), Suse Certified Linux Professional (SCLP) and Certified Linux Engineer (CLE) to IT professionals and aspirants, a statement from onward Novell said here yesterday. As networks become Central to every computing endeavor, the IT certification of network professionals becomes more important. "The goal of Novell education business unit is to build an infrastructure of qualified professionals," onward Novell Software (I) Ltd country manager Munesh Jalota said. "With our acquisition of suse in January 2004, we are ideally placed to create the required infrastructure of qualified linux trained professionals, which will further help in expanding the linux market in India," he said. Last month, onward Novell launched 2 Linux course offerings —Novell Certified Linux Engineer (NCLE) and Suse Linux Certified Professional (SCLP) in India. These courses are aimed at imparting skills on suse offerings and deploying networking services on Linux platform. "Our association with Novell will help us in playing a significant role in meeting the growing demand for qualified professionals," IIHT senior vice president Davuluri P said. Novell is a leading provider of information solutions that deliver secure identity management, web application development and cross-platform networking services. (UNI) |
 |
IFFCO to acquire 13 pc stake in collateral management venture NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Public sector fertiliser major Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd will acquire a 13 per cent stake in the National Collateral Management Services Ltd (NCMSL). Jointly promoted by IFFCO, National Commodity and Derivative Exchange Ltd (NCDEX), a few nationalised banks and Geneva-based audit control and expertise, NCMSL was set up last month with an investment of Rs 4 crore. NCMSL would act as a service provider to facilitate linkages between the commodity excahnge, banks and farmers. It would be responsible for accreditation of warehouses, certification of quality of goods stored in wharehouses, controlling commodity inflow and outflow during physical settlement of trade and dematerialised accounting of collateral. These investments are part of IFFCO’s continuous efforts to bring overall development in the living standards of the farming community. NCMS is also expected to remove the anomalies relating to factors such as quality, quantity, storage and safety currently prevalent in the warehousing and logistics industry. (UNI) |
|
Oracle adds India specific HR features in HRMS NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Oracle is incorporating India-specific HR features in its Human Resources Management System (HRMS), a part of Oracle e-business suite, to bring value to Governments and Indian companies. "The emergence of India as a knowledge economy has created unique HR challenges for Indian Companies and Government Departments, especially in the management of local human capital addressing global needs. We are are incorporating the requirements into the Oracle HRMS," Oracle India Development Centre vice president Murali Subramanian said in a statement here. Oracle HRMS helps businesses and Governments to manage people-related activities and assets, including communication, collaboration, training and development, measurement, recruitment as well as compensation. It empowers enterprises to capture, extract and analyse data related to the entire workforce, providing the intelligence and visibility required to rapidly deploy the best strategies and resources for maximum employee productivity, satisfaction and retention. Oracle hrms gives Indian Government and companies the ability to transform workforce-related data into meaningful information and help decision makers gain immediate access to real-time, complete operational data. "Our customers in India will have the flexibility to accommodate variations in business practice, data gathering and reporting while managing a global workforce," Subramanian said. (UNI) |
|
Jet Airways voted as best domestic airline in Asia Pacific NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Leading private carrier Jet Airways has been voted as the best domestic airline by readers of Travel Trade Gazette (TTG) Asia and TTG China. The award of best domestic airline in Asia Pacific has been conferred on Jet Airways for the second time in succession covering 14 countries in the region. Airline’s chief executive officer Wolfgang Prock-Schauer received the award in Bangkok last night from thai Tourism Minister Sontaya Kunplume. Jet Airways was chosen from an opinion poll conducted among the travel trade, travel agents, tour operators and readers of TTG Asia and TTG China. TTG confers the top awards in total of over 50 categories. While TTG is among the best of Asia’s travel trade newspapers and TTG China is a leading Chinese language travel newspaper circulated in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Meanwhile, Jet Airways has announced availability of its low-cost inventories on the amadeus global distribution system. This means that its apex fares, super apex fares and night saver fares can now be availed by the travel agent community in India using the amadeus system. Amadeus will automatically sell the seat from Jet Airways’ inventory and reflect the same on the users screen in real time. Jet Airways operates a fleet of 33 classic and next-generation boeing 737-400/700/800/900 aircraft and eight modern ATR 72-500 turbo-prop aircraft. It operates over 260 flights daily to 44 destinations, including daily flights to two international destinations — Colombo in Sri Lanka and Kathmandu in Nepal. Since inception on May 5, 1993 till last month-end, the private airline has flown over 46.5 million passengers. (UNI) |
|
L T to set up fabrication facility in the Gulf region DUBAI, Oct 13: Indian engineering giant Larsen and Toubro plans to establish a mega modular fabrication facility in the Gulf region to deepen its presence in the region. The new facility will be on line of the company’s Hazira yard in Mumbai, L T General Manager Joseph Mathew. L T is being set up to meet the growing demand for platforms and other fabrication works in the offshore oil facilities in the Gulf, far east and Africa. "We are in talks with investors at present citing the needs of the project that requires a substantial waterfront area of around 200 acres as the project capitalised at 50 million will be spread over an area of 200 sq yards," Khaleej Times quoted Mr Mathew as saying. L T represents the biggest stall in the Indian pavilion at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC2004) being held in the UAE capital. Mr Ashish Gupta, secretary of India-tech foundation, organisers of the Indian pavilion at the ongoing ADIPEC2004 exposition in Abu Dhabi, said besides the 14 Indian company with expertise in engineering work related to oil and gas sector, six other companies are participating indirectly through their local representative firms. He said that India’s core engineering capabilities and provision of quality products and services at competitive rates are highlighted at the exhibition. (UNI) |
|
Reliance infocomm raises $300 mn syndicated loan NEW DELHI, Oct 13: In one of the largest deals by an Indian telecom company, Reliance infocomm has raised 300 million dollar from overseas markets through syndicated loans to part finance its 5.5 billion dollar telecom project. The seven-year loan carrying an interest rate of 1.7 per cent over the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), considered to be one of the benchmark rates, is structured in such a way that it comes down to 1.2 per cent over libor during the tenure, Jagannath Kumar, head, project finance, Reliance infocomm, told PTI. The 300 million dollar syndicated loan has been arranged by a consortium of eight banks — Abn Amro Nv, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, Bank of Baroda, BNP Paribas, DBS bank, ICICI bank, Mashreqbank and Rabobank. The deal was signed by Reliance Infocomm (RIC) and the consortium members recently in Mumbai. The company which has a subscriber base of 85 lakh, has already raised domestic debts of Rs 5000 crore, and some equity towards capital expenditure for the ongoing mega 5.5 billion dollar infocomm project in Mumbai. "The transaction, the first ever cross-border borrowing by RIC, and the largest debt raising in the international syndication market by an Indian telecom company, has received an overwhelming response," Kumar said. The deal is a sign of the faith reposed by the global banking community in the operating and financial strengths of RIC, in its second year of operation, Kumar said. (PTI) |
|
Five new varieties of seeds, Gram, Sunflower developed INDORE, Oct 13: Five new varities of seeds, Gram, Sunflower, Urad and Jowar were developed by the college of agriculture, Indore associated with Jawahar Lal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya (JNKVV), the dean of the college, Dr J S Raghu said here today. Talking to reporters here today, Raghu said "five new varities of seed have been developed by the college recently and the same will be notified by the centre by October end". "The new varieties are gram — Jawahar Gram 412, Sunlower — Jawahar 97 and Jawahar 99, Urad — Ju 86 and Jowar — Jawahar Jowar 1022", he said. Raghu also informed that the JNKVV’s Agriculture Science Centre, Jhabua has organised a two-day long state level Kisan mela on October 15-16 at Jhabua, to be inaugurated by the Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Kantilal Bhuria. The Vice-Chancellor of the University, Dr Dhyanpal Singh will chair the function. Large number of farmers from across the state will take part in the mela to get themselves acquainted with the latest developments in the field of agriculture, he said. Referring to the plantation of Jatropha plants for the production of bio-diesel, he said that efforts were going to implenet the scheme of planting Jatropha plants on the waste lands spread across 20-21 districts of the state. (PTI) |
|
Indirect tax collection grows by 25 pc at Rs 15,133 cr in Sept NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Centre’s indirect tax mop-up rose by over 25 per cent to Rs 15,132.65 crore in September due to double digit growth in collection of customs, excise and service taxes. The total revenue collection from indirect taxes during the first six months of this fiscal was up by 12.23 per cent to Rs 74,510.45 crore, an official release said here today. In September, customs duty collected stood at Rs 5,423.85 crore, showing an increase of about 30 per cent from Rs 4,177.08 crore in the corresponding period of 2003-04. The excise duty mop-up was Rs 9,032.58 crore in September this year which was 22 per cent higher than Rs 7,428.61 crore in the year-ago period. The service tax collection during September stood at Rs 676.22 crore, registering about 37 per cent growth from Rs 494.32 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal. During the first half of this fiscal, customs duty mop-up was Rs 25,216.91 crore, registering a near 9 per cent rise from Rs 23,167.96 crore in April-September last fiscal. Mop up from excise duties grew by over 10 per cent to Rs 44,494.14 crore during the first six months while that from service tax rose by a whopping 71 per cent to Rs 4,799 crore. With the strengthening of anti-evasion and audit of the Central Excise Department, the Government realised Rs 109.64 crore from "unscrupulous’ manufacturers who were evading excise duties. The major commodities that have been found to be "evasion prone" were automobile components and parts, iron and steel products, pan masala, gutka, polyster yarn and bulk drugs. (PTI) |
|
TCS posts 51% growth in net income MUMBAI, Oct 13: Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) has posted Rs 576.40-crore net income after tax (before exceptional items) for the quarter-ended September 30, 2004, a growth of 51.81 per cent over the corresponding quarter during the previous year and 14.10 per cent over the quarter-ended June 30, 2004. The second quarter results is as per US gap. The revenue was Rs 2,430.70-crore for the second quarter-ended September 30, 2004, a growth of 43.58 per cent over the corresponding quarter during the previous year and 13.93 per cent over the quarter ended June 30, 2004. Fully diluted earnigs per share (face value of Re 1) for the quarter on an equity base of Rs 48.01-crore at Rs 11.56 (excluding exceptional items) and Rs 7.34 (including exceptional items). Commenting on the results, TCS chief executive officer and managing director S Ramadorai said, "the overall quarterly performance reflects our leadership position and the excellent team work of all TCS associates across all the global operations of the enterprise". Speaking to reporters, Mr Ramadorai attributed the excellent growth to the strong market penetration and the initiatives to eliminate the costs of the business. Interestingly, TCS achieved a double-digit growth over the previous quarter in all geography segments namely Americas, Europe, India, Asia-Pacific and others. Company officials said that the company has added 52 clients during the quarter and the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) offering is fully integrated with addition of six new clients during this quarter. TCS delivered several end-to-end solutions to customers in different verticals across geographies and the TCS flagship banking product - quartz - went live for a Bank in Latin America. Referring to banking solutions, Mr Ramadorai said that the company would be focussing on the whole sale and retail banking solutions. "With regard to products other than quartz, TCS will act as a system integrator and product implementator with fuctions including Indianisation, customisation and other localisation efforts", Mr Ramadorai said. Meanwhile, the company officials informed that TCS has become the world’s first organisation to achieve an integrated enterprise wide maturity level 5 on both capability maturity model and people capability maturity model. In addition, TCS was rated the best employer in Indian IT sector by dataquest, IDC. (UNI) |
|
Airtel to cover entire country by March 2005 LUCKNOW, Oct 13: Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited cellular service, Airtel would cover the entire country by the end of the current financial year, Bharti Cellular Limited president (mobility) Manoj Kohli has said. The mobile services in West Bengal, Sikkim and Jammu and Kashmir would be launched this month while in November, Airtel services would commence in Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa. The services in Assam and other north-eastern states would be launched by March next, Mr Kohli claimed. He told UNI here that after March Airtel would be the only cellular service provider in the country to cover all the 23 telecom circles. "It would be a great achievement for the company to connect the entire country by its service giving the customer all benefits of the fastest communication system," he said. At present, Airtel has a presence in 17 circles with a customer base of 9 million, which was expected to reach 10 million by the end of this financial year. Mr Kohli said within a short span, Airtel’s customer base had gone up to 2.5 lakh in both the UP (east) and UP (west) circles. In UP(east), Airtel had crossed one lakh customer mark yesterday in just 42 days of its launch. Admitting some problems in the connectivity between Airtel and BSNL fixed line, he said Airtel had urged BSNL to give it more capacity. Mr Kohli also made it clear that customers in Allahabad would get the connectivity with BSNL fixed line by next week. Maintaining that BSNL was earning heavy revenue by facilitating connectivity with the private telecom players, he said about 20 per cent of the total revenue generated from the customer goes to the public sector telecom service provider. (UNI) |
|
Powergrid hooking on banks for telecom BANGALORE, Oct 13: Competing with the major telecom players in the country, the Power Grid Corportion of India (powergrid), the country’s premiur power transmission company, is scouting for major clients to take up its telecom capacity. Aiming at spinning telecom into another major revenue earner, powergrid is projecting a turnover of Rs 150 crore from next year onwards. "This year we aim a revenue of Rs 50 crore and contracts worth Rs 100 crore had been signed up" Powergrid chairman and managing director R P Singh told newsmen here today. "We are negotiating with the ICICI bank which was given a demonstration of our videoconferencing capability. If we rope them in other banks would follow suit" he said adding that several telecom companies including VSNL, BSNL, Tatas, MTNL and Reliance have already utilising the powergrid telecom infrastructure. He said over the next five to six years the company would get back the investment of Rs 934 crore made in telecom infrastructure. He said the Union Cabinet has today sanctioned two projects amounting to Rs 300 crores to strengthen grid stability in Karnataka. The projects were the Nelamangala-Somanahalli double circuit 400 kv line that would complete the ring to the grid support in Bangalore and the Raichur-Gooty transmission line that would provide stable power transmission in the state. Mr Singh when asked about the Initial Public Offer (IPO) said that the company could go in for an equity issue during the next fiscal. He declined to comment on the size of the issue and said that powergrid was closely watching the NTPC issue. He said Asian Development Bank (ADB) ws keen on financing the improivement in power grid and rural electrification programme of Karnataka. Powergrid was in discussion with Karnataka to take up the Rs 10,000 crore project that would not only plug leakage in transmission and distribution but also ensure quality power to consumers both in rural and urban areas. He said the intervention of powergrid in southern region last year had enabled a savings of Rs 290 crore with one per cent loss reduced in transmission. He said powergrid was also contemplating of linking Talcher with Gulbarga to transmission of power from the proposed 2000 mw project of the Neyveli Lignite corporation at Talcher. (UNI) Italian-Thai construction firm to take over SCIL BANGKOK, Oct 13: Keen to cash in on the anticipated construction boom in India, Thailand’s leading construction companies Italian-Thai Development PLC (ITD) said it will take over Indian construction contractor Skanska Cementation India Ltd for a consideration of 735 million baht (nearly 18 million US dollars). The deal is expected to be finalised next week, subject to regulatory approval by Indian authorities, English language Bangkok daily the Bangkok post reported today. Italian-Thai announced it would purchase an 80.37 per cent stake in SCIL from United Kingdom-based cementation co, a branch of Skanska Ab (Sweden). "SCIL has the potential to grow and create stable marginal income for ITD in the future," said a company statement to the stock exchange of Thailand. The Thai company said it was seeking to establish its presence in India in view of the rapid growth in the construction industry there. After acquiring the majority stake in SCIL, ITD would make a tender offer for the remaining shares, a process expected to be completed by February 2005, the company added. A company official was reported saying that the company expected to win construction bids worth 20 billion baht (about 488 million us dollars) in India next year. It had won a 5.4 billion Baht hydro-power project contract this year. (UNI) |
|
|
